Speculative Fiction Links of the Week for February 9, 2018

It's time for the weekly round-up of interesting links about speculative fiction from around the web, this week with more tributes to Ursula K. Le Guin, Star Trek Discovery (spoilers again mostly marked, but reader beware), Black Panther, Altered Carbon, The Cloverfield Paradox, Winchester, revies of classic science fiction, a whole lot of movie and TV trailers as well as the usual mix of awards news, writing advice, interviews, reviews, con reports, crowdfunding campaigns, science articles, free online fiction and much more. 

Speculative fiction in general:

• The participants of the latest Mind Meld share which SFF books they cannot wait to read in 2018.
• Charles Stross grumbles about the state of contemporary science fiction. 
• Michael Burianyk offers an overview over science fiction in Ukraine. 
• David Mack talks about facts versus story in secret history fiction. 
• Abigail Nussbaum discusses how Autonomous by Annalee Newitz tackles current political issues.  
• K.M. Alexander explains that it's okay to like problematic characters and challenging narratives.
• Jennifer Weiner explains how romance novels can help women explore issues of consent and sexual desire. 
• S.E. Smith explains why romance novels are feminist.
• Judith Tarr revisits Andre Norton's 1959 novel The Beast Master and praises how subversive it still is almost sixty years later. 
• Howling Frog Books revisits Leigh Brackett's 1974 science fiction novel The Ginger Star as well as its sequels The Hounds of Skaith and The Reavers of Skaith.
• Mark Chiocco revisits the 1955 science fiction novella The Big Jump by Leigh Brackett.
• Mark Chiocco also revisits Larry Niven's 1970 science fiction novel Ringworld.  
• Off the TBR revisits the 1974 science fiction novel The Forever War by Joe Haldeman.
• Bookforager revisits the 1974 science fiction novel The Continuous Katherine Mortenhoe by D.G. Compton. 
• AQ's Reviews revisits the 1961 science fiction novel Time is the Simplest Thing by Clifford D. Simak. 
• Jeff LaSala shares his appreciation for the works of R.A. Salvatore. 
• Meghan Ball shares her appreciation for the works of Tamora Pierce.
• Ryan Sayles shares the secret of horror novels and films that stand the test of time.
• Steve Rose takes a look at the movie Bright and other tortured racial analogies and at what point they tip over into pure racism. 
• Angie Dahl wonders why movies featuring female superheroes such as Wonder Woman and Captain Marvel tend to be set in the past. 
• John Boitnott find some business insights for entrepreneurs in The Last Jedi. 
• Dean E.S. Richard explores the character arc of Poe Dameron in The Last Jedi.
• Meanwhile, Kevin Burwick reports that some people are freaking out because at least two Porgs are shown to be gay in The Last Jedi.
• Sulagna Misra praises the afterlife sitcom The Good Place for its insight into characters.
• Mark Jenkins shares his thoughts on the Japanese science fiction movie Before We Vanish.  
• Niko Maragos shares his thoughts about the German horror series Dark and particularly praises its female characters.
• Mike Glyer reports that Lou Antonelli has apologised to blogger Camestros Felapton as well as writer Foz Meadows and her husband for false claims made about them.
• Mike Glyer also shares some further comments from Foz Meadows about the issue.
• Horror writer David F. Case died aged 80.
  

Tributes to Ursula K. Le Guin:

• Ricky Grove shares a tribute to Ursula K. Le Guin.
• Emily Popek shares her appreciation for Ursula K. Le Guin and particularly for her essay "Introducing Myself".
  

Comments on Star Trek Discovery:

• Katharine Trendacosta is still displeased with episode 14 of Star Trek Discovery. 
• Gavia Baker-Whitelaw shares her thoughts on episode 14 of Star Trek Discovery.
• Zack Handlen shares his thoughts on episode 14 of Star Trek Discovery. 
• Kayti Burt shares her thoughts on episode 14 of Star Trek Discovery.
• Keith DeCandido shares his thoughts on episode 14 of Star Trek Discovery. 
• Camestros Felapton shares his thoughts on episode 14 of Star Trek Discovery. 
• Cora Buhlert shares her thoughts on episode 14 of Star Trek Discovery.
• Ethan Siegel shares his thoughts on episode 13 of Star Trek Discovery.
• Cheryl Eddy shares her appreciation for the character of Sylvia Tilly in Star Trek Discovery.
• Kayti Burt wonders whether Star Trek Discovery will end the season by resetting the timeline.
  

Comments on Altered Carbon:

• Benjamin Lee calls Altered Carbon flashy, flawed and fun. 
• Clara Mae declares that Altered Carbon has the potential to become a truly diverse science fiction series. 
• Damien Walter calls Altered Carbon a flat and shiny series adapted from an equally flat and shiny novel. 
• Gavia Baker-Whitelaw declares that Altered Carbon proves that Cyberpunk had failed to progress.  
• Bob Mayer calls Altered Carbon an intriguing journey.
• Sam Reader shares five books to read after watching Altered Carbon.
  

Comments on Black Panther:

• Kendra James declares that Black Panther is as good as people expected it to be.
• Joshua Evans declares that Black Panther is everything people have been asking for and more. 
• Kristy Puchko is thoroughly pleased with Black Panther and particularly praises Michael B. Jordan as the antagonist Killmonger.
• Don Kaye is also extremely pleased with Black Panther. 
• Ramin Setoodeh explains how Black Panther makes history.
• Steve Rose wonders whether Black Panther will fall into the same trap as other Hollywood movies in problematiclly portraying Africa. 
• Carolyn Hinds declares that Black Panther is an allegory for people wanting blackness, but not black people.
• Germain Lussier explains how the country of Wakanda was created for Black Panther.  
• Clarkisha Kent explains how Black Panther tackles colourism by casting dark-skinned actresses in several prominent roles.
• Baraka Kaseko, Marah Eakin and Danette Chavez shares everything you should know about Black Panther before watching the movie. 
• Germain Lussier reports how Chadwick Bosemen was cast to play T'Challa a.k.a. Black Panther. 
• Ashley Weatherford interviews Camille Friend, the hairstylist who created the stunning styles seen in Black Panther. 
• Graeme Virtue reports how Black Panther was targeted by disgruntled fans who promised to ruin the films Rotten Tomatoes score. 
• Daoud Tyler-Ameen and Sidney Madden explain how the Black Panther soundtrack album came together.

Comments on The Cloverfield Paradox: 

• Ignatiy Vishnevetsky delcares that The Cloverfield Paradox is not nearly as original as its marketing gimmick.
• Germain Lussier declares that The Cloverfield Paradox lacks the tensions and twists of its predecessors.
• Reuben Baron shares eight things he loved and seven things he hated about The Cloverfield Paradox.
• Germain Lussier also explains how The Cloverfield Paradox links to the other Cloverfield movies.
• Phil Owen also explains how The Cloverfield Paradox fits in with the other two Cloverfield movies.
• Angel Wilson shares her thoughts on The Cloverfield Paradox and also detects a pattern in the Cloverfield franchise.
• Gavia Baker-Whitelaw wonders why The Cloverfield Paradox was distributed via netflix with barely any advance notice and not shown in theatres with months of pre-publicity and whether this is actually a way to bury a film with a black director and black star.
• Camestros Felapton and Timothy the Talking Cat shares their not entirely serious thoughts on The Cloverfield Paradox.
  

Comments on Winchester:

• Cheryl Eddy declares that Winchester may be full of ghosts, but that it's not haunting or scary.
• Kristy Puchco shares her thoughts on Winchester.

Awards:

• The nominations for the 2018 Hugo Awards and the 1943 Retro Hugo Awards are open.
• The 2018 Locus Poll and Survey is open for voting.  
• The final ballot for the 2017 Bram Stoker Awards has been announced.
• The winners of the 2017 SFR Galaxy Awards have been announced.
• The finalists for the 2018 Prometheus Hall of Fame Award have been announced.
• The shortlist for the 2017 Brave New World Awards has been announced. 
• The winners of the Horror Writers Association's 2017 Specialty Press Awards have been announced.
• The finalists for the 2018 Audie Awards have been announced. 
• Neal Stephenson has won the 2018 Robert A. Heinlein Award.
• The horror anthology Dark Fantasies, edited by Mariano Villareal, has won the 2017 Guillermo de Baskerville Award.
• David Cullen explains what he learned judging the Arthur C. Clarke Award.
• The winners of the 2018 Directors Guild Awards have been announced with some love for genre productions.
  

Writing, publishing and promotion:

• Kameron Hurley explains what she has learned about being a writer.
• D.J. Collins shares some writing tips for new authors. 
• Lauren Sapala implores writers to trust their own process.
• Lauren Sapala also explains why it is so difficult for certain personality types to share their writing with others.
• Thomas Pluck debunks bad writing advice. 
• E.J. Swift talks about writing a time travel novel.
• Sandra M. Odell shares some worldbuilding tips regarding accomodating characters with disabilities. 
• Stacy Whitman takes a look at the role of cultural experts and sensitivity readers. 
• Michael Coorlim talks about author identity as a marketing tool.
• Kim Pruett discusses the reasons why writers use pen names.
  

Interviews:

• Locus interviews J.Y. Yang. 
• Scott Simon interviews Tamora Pierce. 
• The Qwillery interviews Maria Vale.
• The Qwillery also interviews Sue Burke.
• Adrian Van Young interviews Chandler Klang Smith.
• The Horror Writers Association interviews Michael Arnzen.
• Alex Heimbach interviews Adrianne Finlay.
• Antonia Saxon interviews Diane Dillon. 
• Greg Fleming interviews Neil Cross, creator of Luther and Hard Sun.
• Bryan Cairns interviews actress Odette Annable who plays Samantha Arias a.k.a. Reign in Supergirl.
  

Reviews:

• The Romance Reviews reviews The Tea Master and the Detective by Aliette de Bodard.
• Paul Weimer reviews Moonshine by Jasmine Gower.
• Adrienne Martini reviews Artemis by Andy Weir and The Wrong Stars by Tim Pratt. 
• Niall Alexander reviews Spare and Found Parts by Sarah Maria Griffin.
• Ross Johnson reviews Semiosis by Sue Burke.
  
• The Middle Shelf reviews The Murders of Molly Southbourne by Tade Thompson. 
• Galhalla Book Blog reviews An Unkindness of Ghosts by River Solomon.
• Liz Bourke reviews The Sisters of the Crescent Empress by Leena Likitalo. 
• Faren Miller reviews Future Home of the Living God by Louise Erdrich. 
• Jana Nyman and Tadiana Jones reviews Tarnished City by Vic James.
• Gabino Iglesias reviews The Gone World by Tom Sweterlitsch.
• Sam Reader reviews The Gone World by Tom Sweterlitsch. 
• Mark Chitty reviews Invaders From Beyond by Colin Sinclair, Tim Major and Julian Benson.
• Ardi Alspach reviews The Sky is Yours by Chandler Klang Smith. 
• Rob Bedford also reviews The Sky is Yours by Chandler Klang Smith.
• Off the TBR reviews Senlin Ascends by Josiah Bancroft.
• Jana Nyman reviews Bright Thrones by Kate Elliott. 
• Corrina Lawson reviews Markswoman by Rati Mehrotra.
• The Qwillery reviews The Way Into Chaos by Harry Connolly.
• Mark Yon reviews Age of Assassins by R.J. Barker.
• Jeff Somers reviews Child of a Mad God by R.A. Salvatore.
• The Fantasy Café reviews The Bone Witch by Rin Chupeco.
• Alex Brown reviews The Hazel Wood by Melissa Albert.
• Angela Slatter reviews The Silver Well by Kate Forsyth and Kim Wilkins.
• Katie Burton reviews Verdigris Deep by Frances Hardinge.
• Kirkus reviews Your One & Only by Adrianne Finlay.
• Jesse Hudson reviews Graft by Matt Hill.
• Michael Patrick Hicks review Devil's Row by Matt Serafini.
  

Crowdfunding:

• Natalie Riess is looking for funding for a two volume print edition of her fantasy webcomic Snarlbear. 
  
• Good Society, a Jane Austen inspired roleplaying game, is looking for funding.
• The English language edition of the Keyring RPG, an RPG so compact it fits on a keyring, is looking for funding.
• Latonja S. Richardson is looking for funding to send 1000 girls to see the upcoming film A Wrinkle in Time and give every girl a copy of the book.
• Tarie Crawford, the mother of podcaster and critic Shaun Duke, needs some help with medical expenses following abdominal surgery.
  

Con reports:

• Diane King shares some cosplay photos of SciFi Con in Edinburgh, Scotland.
• Martin Morse Wooster reports about a performance of It's the Rest of the World That Looks So Small: A Theatrical Revue of Jonathan Coulton in Silver Spring, Maryland.
  

Science and technology:

• Space X's Falcon Heavy rocket has launched successfully and sent a Tesla sportscar into orbit.
• Ethan Siegel talks about satellite galaxies.
• New laser technology has revealed more than 60000 hidden Maya ruins in the Guatemalan jungle.

Free online fiction:

• "Where would you be now?" by Carrie Vaughn at Tor.com. 
• "Your Slaughterhouse, Your Killing Floor" by Sunny Moraine in Uncanny Magazine.
• "Don't Press Charges and I Won't Sue" by Charlie Jane Anders in Boston Review.
• "Wind Will Rove" by Sarah Pinsker in Asimov's.  
• "Persephone of the Crows" by Karen Joy Fowler in Asimov's.
• "Four-Point Affective Calibration" by Bogi Takács in Lightspeed. 
• "The Seventh Expression of the Robot General" by Jeffrey Ford in Lightspeed.
• "Silver Bullet" by Dyane Forde.

Odds and ends: 

• Watch a trailer for Solo: A Star Wars Story. 
• Watch a TV spot for Solo: A Star Wars Story. 
• Watch a trailer for Deadpool 2.
• Watch a trailer for season 2 of Jessica Jones. 
• Watch a TV spot for Avengers: Infinity War. 
• Watch a Japanese trailer for Pacific Rim: Uprising.
• Watch a trailer for Krypton.
• Watch a trailer for season 2 of Westworld.
• Watch a trailer for The Quiet Place.
• Watch a trailer for Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom.